97-561-XIE2006001

Archived Content

Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please contact us to request a format other than those available.

Commuting Patterns and Places of Work of Canadians, 2006 Census: Portrait of census metropolitan areas and their municipalities

Commuting patterns

Public transit is mainly an option in the largest CMAs

Since 1996, the use of public transit has increased in many CMAs.
Overall, the proportion of workers in the 33 CMAs using public
transit to get to work rose from 14.1% in 1996 to 14.4% in 2001 and 15.1% in 2006.

Table 11b
Proportion of workers using public transit to get to work, census metropolitan areas, 1996, 2001 and 2006

The extent to which public transit is used in the different CMAs
depends on a number of factors, including: population density, concentration of jobs in sectors that are well serviced
by public transit, the cost of using cars compared to public transit, the availability of parking close to work,
the quality of service, etc. In general, the
largest CMAs have more features that make public transit
more appealing to many workers. Among other things, they are much more likely to have a well-established public
transit system, which encourages workers to use it to get to their city centres.

This reality is confirmed by comparing public transit usage in the six CMAs with populations of one million or more, i.e., Toronto (22.2%), Montréal (21.4%),
Vancouver (16.5%), Ottawa - Gatineau (19.4%), Calgary (15.6%) and Edmonton (9.7%). By comparison, the six
smallest CMAs all had much smaller proportions of commuters
using public transit: 2.5% in Peterborough, 4.4% in Saint John (N.B.), 3.2% in
Thunder Bay, 3.1% in Brantford, 2.8% in Moncton and 6.0% in Guelph.